Ubuntu is coming to Windows Store, here’s what this means for developers

During Build 2017, we found out the Ubuntu is on its way to the Windows Store. What does this mean for developers? Rich Turner, a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft, published a blog post where he highlighted the implications of Ubuntu’s arrival to the Windows Store. He first reminded users what EVP for Windows & Devices Group Terry Meyerson announced about the Windows Subsystem for Linux:

1. We continue our partnership with our friends at Canonical to bring Ubuntu to the Windows Store app

We are also working with the great teams at SUSE and Fedora to bring their Linux distros to the Windows Store & Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

You will be able to download these distros from the store and install them side-by-side on your PC(s)

You’ll be able to run one or more distros simultaneously if you wish

And at OSCON 2017 I delivered a talk on the architecture and history of Bash/WSL, and outlined these new features. Thanks to the great OSCON audience & attendees for all your great support & engagement.

Ubuntu’s availability in the Windows Store will impact developers

Along with the popular Linux distribution coming to the Store, Suse and Fedora are coming to the Windows Subsystem for Linux, which means that developers will be able to enjoy faster and more reliable downloads. They’ll also have the opportunity of installing Linux distributions to secondary fixed drives and they’ll be able to run various distributions more closely with production environments.

What’s even more interesting is the fact that developers will be able to run more than just one distribution at a time and this will turn out to be great for working on machines that span different environments.

Turner also highlighted the fact that WSL was designed to be “distro-agnostic” and this is the very first time they’re exercising this specific aspect. He was also very grateful and appreciative of the help received during the testing processes and advised testers to file all encountered bugs or problems in the GitHub issues repo.

The latest features are set to arrive in an upcoming Windows Insiders build.